CBS: Vermont Enacts Single Payer Health Law

This past week, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a bill creating a single-payer healthcare plan for the Green Mountain State – making it the first state to do so, according to a report by CBS News.

At the signing ceremony, Shumlin announced: "This law recognizes an economic and fiscal imperative - that we must control the growth in health care costs that are putting families at economic risk and making it harder for small employers to do business. We have a moral imperative to fix this problem, with 47,000 Vermonters uninsured and another 150,000 underinsured and worried about how to afford keeping their families healthy."

Vermont lawmakers passed the legislation -- which guarantees every Vermont resident the right to join Green Mountain Care -- in March by a vote of 92-49. The law is scheduled to ramp-up in 2014.